Angels
by InnocentGuilt
Summary: Namine didn't like to show her art, she didn't like to go around with people she didn't know, she didn't cozy up...until Kairi. KairixNamine, quasi sequel to [I'm actually leaving now!]


A/N: Okay! This is a Kairi/Naminé fic that I did. I usually don't write these but one of my reviewers for my other story said she would appreciate this. So…I did…because I love my reviewers. (And she got the idea stuck in my head so I HAD to write it.

Anyway, this is a quasi-companion to 'I'm actually leaving now!' Uh, it does have some references to that, but it can completely stand alone (It's just to all my reviewers for that story who're like 'I want more, I want more'. Here you go!) It's not as funny as 'I'm actually leaving now!' I think that different relationships have different dynamics, and this is how I think theirs would go. I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: No funny disclaimer. I don't own it…and it makes me sad.

&$&$&$&$&$&$&

Namine Seraphina didn't usually draw where people could see her. It was odd, and uncomfortable, because people would stare at her and try and poke their nose up high enough to where they could see what she was drawing. Then they would come up to her asking to see more, to see if she could draw them, just bothering her and keeping her away from her work. She wouldn't be drawing out here now but it was summer and it was almost ending and her dearest, darling friend had dragged her out of her house, quite literally, and demanded a picnic with her, his boyfriend, and his boyfriend's friend.

Personally she didn't think it was a picnic at all. She thought it was one of Riku's (the dearest, darling friend) ploys to get her art out into the world, which was silly. If she wanted it anywhere near the world she would have stapled it to walls in the city. But Riku was persistent, and Riku was sneaky, and Riku (bastard) got what he wanted one way or the other.

So, Namine Seraphina was out her on a bench, a very uncomfortably bench, that had no pillows, and it was splintering, trying to hide her artwork so no one would come around her. They had had their picnic and it was enjoyable. Namine had met Riku's boyfriend, Sora, a few times over the year they had been together, more than a few times actually, there were days if Riku wasn't answering his phone, or was at work and Sora couldn't go he would call Namine and they would talk. But this was her first time to ever meet Sora's friend Kairi.

She was a very nice girl, a bit mean, a bit rambunctious, a bit overly cute, if that was possible. But over all she was very nice and Namine had had a good time at the picnic.

She looked up at her models, Sora and Riku, who were posing unknowingly for her. Sora was sitting in between Riku's legs, snuggled right up to his chest, with one of Riku's arms, being lightly held by Sora, around his chest, and the other arm pointing at various things around the park. He was talking into Sora's ears, and Namine watched as Sora's lips twitched, faded a little, and then smiled brightly as Riku said something dirty, she was sure.

Kairi was missing though, Namine registered somewhere in the deep dark corner of her mind. Where was she? She didn't look up from her paper to look around for her, there was no screaming, no yelling, no crying, so it couldn't be that bad.

"Riku's missing his ear." Some one said form behind her.

She instantly scrambled to shut her notebook, her heart jumping rates as she was startled back to the real world. She shut the book with a snap, pushing her pencil into the binding as someone sat beside her.

"Sorry," Kiari said from beside her. "I didn't mean to frighten you."

"It's okay." Namine assured her, opening the sketchpad just enough to unfold the papers and straighten them out.

"Can I see?" Kairi asked holding out her hand.

Namine froze, her eyes wide as she tried to find a way out of letting the other girl see. "I…I'd rather you didn't." She said honestly.

They sat like that for a few moments, Kiari's hand outstretched in front of her, and Namine looking at her over he book. Kiari's smile never left, and neither did Namine's hope that the other would give up. Finally Kairi put her hand down and smiled.

"You win… this time." She said with a smirk. She stood and walked off, picking up a few clods of dirt and throwing them and Sora and Riku.

Namine opened her book again, searching for the picture she had been working on. It had been saved from the torment her older, looser papers had been. It was still sitting clean, and smooth, attached completely to the binding. She turned her head a little, to examine the boys in her picture.

Riku was missing an ear.

&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

Naminé noticed how subtly Kairi suddenly slipped into her life after the picnic. Not like Sora did. She didn't call or anything, she didn't try to get Naminé out of her house, she was just there, somehow. If Sora and Riku managed to pull out of the house for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, Kairi was at the diner they went to. If they went to a museum, the zoo, or gallery, Kairi was there doing research on a paper she needed for her history, her zoology, or her art theory class.

And she would always smile at Naminé sweetly and ask, "Are you ready to show me your pictures?" Naminé wouldn't say anything to that question she would smile and listen, as Sora and Riku got into several faux arguments that somehow always ended in the fact that Riku was a mad pirate, and Sora liked back pockets. Naminé didn't exactly follow along with their arguments all the time, but it was great to see her 'older brother's' face light up when they were together.

Kairi never complained that her question was never answered. She would continue along like the question had never been brought up. She would brush her short auburn hair out of her face and take a note, a bite, a drink, whatever she was doing at the time. She never really minded, and it almost bugged Naminé.

&$&$&$&$&$&$&

One time, Naminé was at Sora's, helping them pack the entirety of the brunette's thousands of belongings so he could move in with Riku. She didn't know exactly how this was going to all fit into Riku's house, he had a spacious place, but this was ridiculous. She didn't see how he got it all into his apartment complex to begin with. They didn't really let her do much; she was allowed to pack the figurines and the pictures (which was honestly enough to keep her busy for a year.).

But Kiari wasn't there, and she was unsure of how she felt about that. She remained silent, stuck in her thoughts, trying to find the defogger button in her brain. She wrapped another figure; setting it gently in the box, right next to the other four hundred seventy-eight thousand others.

"Where's Kairi?" Naminé asked, shocking herself even as the words left her lips.

Riku and Sora instantly stopped arguing about…whatever half-brained, idiot subject they had chosen this time. Sora looked up to Riku, whose aqua eyes lit up even more than usual.

"She's sick." Riku said.

"Why?" Sora asked.

There was a long pause because…Naminé didn't know why. She supposed she could make something up real quick. Tell them she just noticed she was gone, she was curious, she was wondering. Or the truth, she was lonely. She was lonely and she wanted the lively redhead to keep her company, even if they never really said anything. She wanted her to ask if Naminé if she was ready to share her pictures. She wanted to ignore Kairi, to act as if she wasn't there, to play hard-to-get.

She shook her head. "No reason."

Sora looked almost ready to kick something. Riku just shrugged and went back to packing. Naminé watched them both curiously. What were they up to and was it going to kill her? She wondered as Sora started talking.

"You know…I got bored last night." Sora stated.

"You're always bored." Riku interjected.

Sora glared momentarily, and then continued talking as if he had never heard a damn word Riku said. "And I decided to look up a _whole_ bunch of last names. And knowing me," He paused taking a sip out of his drink, "I looked up our last names. And I just thought it was odd how our last names reflected on us."

Riku nodded, taking apart Sora's table, and Naminé stacked all the pictures in the box. "Okay, what do our names mean?" Riku asked.

"I'm getting there! I'm getting there." Even though he really wasn't.

Naminé blanked out, staring impassively at the box in front of her. She wasn't really thinking about much, she didn't remember thinking about anything at all. But in all honesty she couldn't take her mind of the mean, little redhead. Her eyes, her smile, her hair…

"ANYWAY!" Sora yelled, though it was all kind of fuzzy to her. He continued talking and she continued not thinking, wrapping the various trinkets slowly, carefully, until she heard the name Kairi. "Kairi's name mean's beautiful. And…"

"What is Kairi's last name?"

Sora stopped, hands still in mid-air because he did talk with his hands, and he smiled. "Orabela."

"That is beautiful." Naminé smiled. Riku smiled at her from under the table he was demolishing, and nodded. She looked down. Riku knew. Riku always knew. Even if he was a conniving bastard, he saw everything that flitted over her eyes.

"You're name means angel." Sora finished, taking a deep breath.

"Angel?" Naminé asked, her eyebrows arching. How odd.

"Yeah, I looked it up on the internet." Finally jumping off of the counter he had been sitting on for the past twenty minutes, and stuffing things randomly into a box.

"Doesn't mean it's true, Sora." Riku said, his voice straining as he wrestled with a bolt in the table.

"Uh, yeah it does! Internet means instant truth."

Riku stopped what he was doing, "And Sora means instant egg head." He glared.

Sora smiled. "No, Sora means sky."

Through out the entire argument, Naminé had been thinking about Kairi. Her name really did fit her. She was one of the most beautiful people Naminé had ever seen. It really did make her sad that she wasn't here. Naminé's mind started swirling. What if she hadn't come today because she found out Naminé secret? No, that wasn't it, they shared the same 'secret'; Sora had told her. What if she didn't come because Naminé played hard-to-get harder than she thought she did? What if she gave up on Naminé? When did this become a prospect for a relationship?

It made a little sense to her, she guessed. Kairi was really the only female she talked to, and enjoyed talking to. Kairi did things that made her smile and laugh. Kairi wanted to see her art, though…so did everyone else. Scratch that off. It still relatively shocked the little blond that when it came down to it, she couldn't find a reason, a solid, factual reason that she wanted to be with Kairi. She just did. And that was odd for her, because she really didn't like to be around people.

Naminé sighed. It meant she would have to give a little.

"What does Kairi like?"

Riku and Sora both dropped the rubber duckies they were holding.

"I want to draw a picture for her. What does Kairi like?" She asked again.

There was a long pause, in which time Sora looked at Riku and back to Naminé.

"She likes Angels."

And the implication was not lost on Naminé

&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

That was all she worked on for the next few weeks.

One simple drawing, of a simple angel in mid-take off. It usually would have been done with and cast to the side with in the first day, but this time Naminé was noticing all the imperfections she had when drawing. Her lines were inconsistently darker and then lighter. Her feathers didn't look quite right; they looked like small boat paddles. The background was fuzzy; there weren't enough clouds in the sky, the grass looked like a whole bunch of squiggles. Her eyes were off, her hands were off, her hair, her feet, her lips.

She finally set it down and walked away from it. It would never be good enough for Kairi.

&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

She was at Riku and Sora's one day, not too long after she had put the drawing of the angel away. Sora was out for the after noon, and Riku had wanted some alone time with Naminé. They really didn't talk much, Naminé flipped through the channels of his television unseeingly and Riku did his homework, peeking up every now and then to sneer at something on the television. That's really all they ever did when they were on their own. She didn't understand how they kept the friendship going, but they did, and that's all that mattered.

When Sora opened the door, the wind blew it out of his hands and he had to jump to catch it before it smashed into the wall. He held the door long enough for Kairi to get it, then wrestled it shut again. The wind was really roaring out there. Sora blew out his breath, tired and sore, and Kairi just looked wind blown, with awe etching her features.

"It's gonna storm tonight." Sora grumbled as he flopped down on the couch, head resting comfortably on Riku's lap. He sighed as Riku's hands found his head. "I took care of it." The gallery. Her gallery.

She knew what they were talking about. They never said it but she had always known. She knew they both went through great lengths to protect her work, though she wasn't always entirely sure why. She sighed as another presence entered her space.

_Kairi._

From behind her a hand raked gently through her hair. She didn't know when they had become comfortable with this notion, but for the past few weeks this was what they did. Kairi would stand behind her and Naminé would lean against the redhead.

It really didn't occur to Naminé that Kairi had seen her gallery until Sora actually started talking about Kairi about their day of shopping, their entire day together, and Riku asked if Kairi had been with him all along.

And Kairi said, "Yes."

Naminé jumped off of her seat and away from Kairi and her loving hands, towards the center of the room. Kairi saw. The awe behind her eyes when she had entered finally registered. She was disgusted that Naminé could be so filthy. She wrapped her arms around herself and backed away from the room of three.

"I'm going." She said, all of the sudden uncomfortable under their stares, especially Kairi's. She made a dash for it, running out of the house into the howling wind and rain. She was aware that Riku had jumped up to stop her, but she wasn't aware that Kairi had followed her out of the house.

"Naminé! Naminé! STOP!" Naminé didn't want to! She wanted to be away from her and her stare of disgust. She wanted to be away from this place, from this world, from this life. She didn't want to stop.

But she did.

Her breath puffing, she stopped, her knees deciding not to work. She fell to the ground with a splash, covering her pretty white dress in muddy water. She sat there as Kairi's noisy splashes warned her of her intruder before Kairi herself skidded to a halt in front of her. They were both on the ground now, on their way to being soaked to the bone. Naminé's dress was ruined and Kairi's skirt was well on its way.

"They were beautiful." Kairi said, raising her voice enough to be heard over the rain.

And it all went away. Suddenly the rain was not falling on them, the ground beneath them wasn't swirling because of mud and their weight, the air was not cold and making them shiver. Their clothes were not dirty; their shoes were not ruined. It was just the two of them and a kiss they shared.

&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

As it was, Naminé didn't return to any meeting with the three of them for a long while. She was confused and she didn't like it. She didn't go any where for the next month, she sent other friends out to the market for her, for her food, cleaning products…paint.

She was preparing to paint the picture, the one she had drawn for Kairi. She liked that so much better than a simple drawing. She could do more with paint; make it bigger, prettier, real. But she needed the drawing first, and as luck would have it, she left it in her gallery.

&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

The gallery, or what was supposed to be a gallery was in the very, very, back of town, in the alleyways filled with rats, and stray dogs, and cats. Boxes were everywhere, along with bottles, cans, and things she honestly didn't want to know the name of. Then in the middle of the wall was a hole, there was cloth over it, so no one could see her things so willy-nilly, and no one ever came here, so her work was safe.

Her gallery had managed to survive the storm the storm that raged, and the one that hit directly after that, and the one after that. It amazed her that the little make shift roof that Riku and Sora kept using could hold up to such abuse. But really that didn't catch her attention as she walked into the dingy, messy place, if one _could_ call it that. It was the redhead standing in the middle just…gazing at the pictures she saw.

Kairi didn't see her, and if she did, she didn't show it. She stood making a slow circle around the room as she examined all the painting Kairi had on the wall. Naminé just watched as her tanned hand repeatedly stroked the painting she saw, examining the texture, following the line of a stroke, making sure what she was touching was real.

She turned around and smiled at Naminé. "There you are."

Naminé didn't ask how Kairi had known she would be there; instead she shrugged, a small, shy smile tugging her lips. She must be so angry with me for ignoring her after that kiss: Naminé was beginning to think. She only came here to tell me never to speak to her again.

Then don't let her go, said a simple voice. That was all she needed. "I drew you a picture." The little blonde said.

Kairi smiled, "Show it to me."

Moving around the makeshift gallery, sifting through papers, she found hundreds of her older work, and one that even dated back to when she was fifteen, but not the one she was looking for. She sighed; she really did need to clean. She moved things around her desk, along the shelves. And, finally, on the floor right next to Kairi was the only down turned paper left in the room. Naminé picked it up, and brushed it off. It was a bit crinkled, and the lines had smeared from being rubbed on the floor. The blonde suddenly wished she had taken better care of it, especially when Kairi came to grasp it.

There was a long pause as the redhead looked over the picture. She traced the fuzzy lines, and looked all down the picture. Then Naminé started to ramble.

"Someone told me you like Angels. And I thought you might like this, because you were always asking to see my drawings, so I thought I could draw you that. I'm sorry it's so bad, but…"

Kairi frowned, something that didn't look good on Kairi, so she didn't ever frown. "This isn't an angel!" She exclaimed.

Naminé stopped instantly. It was one thing to think that your own work was awful; it was another thing completely to know someone else thought the same, though. She sighed and looked at the ground, fidgeting with the ends of her dress. She sighed as another presence entered her space.

_Kairi._

Naminé looked up, her eyes meeting a twin pair.

Kairi smiled, showing her the blasphemy that was her artwork. "It looks nothing like you." She said softly, before tearing Naminé's gaze from the art by taking her chin in her hands and kissing her. Slow. Steady. And sweet. Teasing her with butterfly kisses, and soft caresses.

Kairi pulled away, slowly, her eyes glowing with euphoria. And Naminé did just the same, touching her lips, which still tingled from Kairi's touch.

Naminé Seraphina looked at Kairi, her eyes wide with shock, and then she smiled. "Let me show you my pictures." She whispered, taking Kairi's hand in hers and lacing there fingers together, as she began to circle the room, giving backgrounds, histories, and dates of the pictures and paintings she drew. She told her what she was feeling, what she had been trying to accomplish, and if she had pulled it together.

And Kairi listened to the entire thing, never once getting bored, never once saying anything that suggested that her artwork was horrid, like Naminé herself had always thought. In fact, she smiled through it all.

$&$&$&$&$&$&$

"Kairi!" Says one of the very important looking people at Kairi's restaurant, the Paopu, which Naminé had found out her parents owned a few weeks after they got together.

The little redhead walked up, wearing her snazzy black pin-stripe suit with a purple button-up underneath, fitted perfectly to her body. "Yes, Ms. Rinoa?"

"That is a darling picture! Where did you get it?"

Kairi looked back over her shoulder to the picture in mention. A painting, to be exact. A painting of an Angel, mid take-off, with blonde hair and silver wings. It was the one she had seen at the gallery down to a tee, only one minor change, there was another angel underneath, with auburn hair and gold wings, holding the other as if steadying her in her bumpy take off. It looked as if the blond was younger, and Naminé had said it was to make it pleasing to the public eye. But Kairi like it, and so she had high-jacked it (her own picture, yes) and hung it in her restaurant.

Kairi Orabela smiled back to Ms. Rinoa. "My girlfriend did that for me."

_Fin._

A/N: Wow…surprisingly enough, I like this. I hope you all did to. I can't ramble in my A/N today because I have to got to school in an hour so I'm cutting this short.

Reviews, you little land-lubbers!

Thank you.


End file.
